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Thursday, July 08, 2004

Who wouldn't want an actual Alexander the Great coin? (Rhetorical question... please don't answer.) Or a coin of Augustus Caesar who proclaimed himself a god not too many years before someone else who did the same was crucified?

And wouldn't it be cool to have the same kind of coin that that crucified guy referred to when he counseled to "Render unto Caesar [Tiberius at the time] what is Caeser's"? Or the widow's mite whose donation he commended, or an example of the very piece of silver that seduced Judas enough to betray him?

But personally I want one of these, the coins that emperor Constantine struck after the Battle of Milvian Bridge in 312, particulalry the one picturing himself looking up to the sky to the "vision" that told him to conquer in the name of Christ. The battle was a success and Christianity was thenceforth not punishable by death, and even had military back-up.

Why do I want one you ask? Duh! Because I want to have a memento of the first Constantine now that I live in the time of the second!

Kidding! Kidding! I just can't think of a statement that would more infuriate this place, so it's fun to say it.

Actually, whether the Constantine affair was for better of for worse is an interminable debate. The hip topic now is to refer to the "post-Constantinian" Christianity, that is Christianity without broad cultural endorsement. Whether or not that is where things stand is again... an interminable debate.

What do I think? I don't know... I just want the coin so I can hold it up to my forehead and telepathically receive the answer. And seeing that the Ancient Coin market has been flooded much thanks to our friend the internet, I may be able to afford one.

But speaking of the internet, I broke it. I googled the word "google" and it exploded.

"The breezy style is often the work of an egocentric, the person who imagines that everything that comes to mind is of general interest and that uninhibited prose creates high spirits and carries the day."
-Strunk & White (p. 73)